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Finance Committee opens weeklong review and postpones vote on planning director nominee Elijah Romulus
Summary
After an extended nomination hearing that covered grants, permitting, major development sites and concerns about experience and continuity, the Finance Committee voted to postpone a recommendation on Elijah Romulus's appointment as director of planning and economic development for two weeks to allow further review and consultation.
The Finance Committee on Feb. 2 held an extended confirmation hearing for Mayor Rodriguez's nominee for director of planning and economic development, Elijah Romulus, and postponed a final recommendation to the full council.
Romulus opened with a prepared statement outlining municipal, regional and grant experience, including work on infrastructure, clean-energy projects and housing-related grants he said totaled nearly $2 million. He described experience leading projects from permitting to construction, grant-writing successes (housing- and complete-streets-related grants), and previous roles at Old Colony Planning Council, Bridgewater and Westwood.
Councilors probed his municipal management experience, asking about exact years in post, number of direct reports, whether he holds professional planning certifications, his record on long-term plans and specific experience with large-scale developments (including the Fairgrounds, the CSX/Trout Brook site, and the former police station). Several councilors raised concerns about the frequency of prior job changes, the level of supervisory experience and whether he had previously been placed on a personal improvement plan while at OCPC; Romulus said he did not recall such a plan and defended his record and commitment to Brockton.
Questions also covered operational priorities if confirmed: updating the city's 2017 master plan (Romulus suggested a 2027 update), improving permitting with software (OpenGov), staffing and grant continuity, and addressing pedestrian-safety and redevelopment sites. The mayor attended and said Romulus was selected after a public hiring process and recommended taking a chance on the nominee; some council members urged postponement to allow more time to review qualifications and procedural questions related to the job posting.
Because no motion to recommend the appointment received an immediate second, a motion to continue the matter for two weeks was moved and seconded; the committee approved the postponement, leaving the nomination to be revisited at the next FinCom meeting. The mayor and councilors said they would pursue further discussion before the full council's confirmation vote.
Next steps: the item will return to the Finance Committee for further consideration at a date set by the committee, and will subsequently go to the full City Council with a committee recommendation or without one, depending on the outcome of follow-up work.
